"He Named Me Malala succeeds as an emotive but authentic tale of Malala’s life to date."IMAGENATION ABUDHABI

Davis Guggenheim, director of the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, here turns his attention to the incredible story of Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai. Shot in the head by the Taliban for speaking out in support of women’s education, she not only recovered but has become one of the most famous teenagers in the world, known for her determined campaigning for women’s rights and unwavering faith in the liberating power of education. Guggenheim’s documentary effectively explores both the public persona and private individual that is Malala, using a combination of historical news footage and vivid animation to trace the development of her identity through its social and familial contexts. While sometimes lacking focus, the film finely balances humour and tragedy in a way that makes it entertaining but also profoundly moving.

At the beginning, animation is used to bring to life the story of the Afghani folk hero that Malala is named after: Malalai of Maiwand. With a rallying speech, she helped Pashtun fighters to a famous victory against the British, but was shot and killed in battle. Exploiting the uncanny parallels between Malalai’s and Malala’s stories, next we are faced with the immediate aftermath of Malala’s shooting, as told through news reports, images of Malala in a coma, and her father reflecting on how he felt at the time, including his belief that Malala was thinking: “I was a child, you should have stopped me.” This juxtaposition of folk history and tragic reality sets up a tension between Malala the idealised, indomitable figure and Malala the ordinary, vulnerable human being.

The film’s structure consists of contrasts like this: it is largely back-and-forth between Malala’s present and an establishing of the events leading up to her shooting. In the first scene we get to know Malala as a real, flawed individual, exploring her relationship with her family as well as the difficulties she faces adapting to a new country, culture and school. This is often humorous, as when her confident youngest brother says: “She is a little bit naughty.” In contrast, the retrospective narrative details the rise of the Taliban in the Swat valley, and the terrifying transformation of its society brought about by their radical views: we see striking images of the Taliban burning huge piles of modern technological equipment. The shifts between Malala’s present in Birmingham and her past in the Swat valley highlight the differences between the two. Yet this becomes less effective through overuse, and sometimes means the film lacks direction.

Unlike Malala’s 2013 memoir I Am Malala, this film’s title suggests it is not only about her; it focuses on her father Ziauddin Yousafzai almost as much. Beautiful animation is used to relate his story, where the power of his speech is visualised through flame-like letters in the air. We learn about Ziauddin’s relationship with his father, his passion for education as a schoolteacher, his marriage to Malala’s mother, his principled resistance to the terror of the Taliban, and, most touchingly, his stammer. He is clearly a strong influence on Malala, but the focus on him is excessive, especially as much less is said about Malala’s mother, who is simply characterised as “beautiful” but uneducated. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t distinguish Malala enough as a figure independent of her father, undermining her claim that: “My father only gave me the name Malalai. He didn’t make me Malalai.”

Overall, He Named Me Malala succeeds as an emotive but authentic tale of Malala’s life to date. Richly artistic animation and Thomas Newman’s appropriately stirring soundtrack add feeling to the layering of historical and contemporary video and audio. Towards its end, the film returns to the aftermath of Malala’s shooting. Now, in the light of its double focus on her life before and after this terrible event, we understand better how she can be both ordinary schoolgirl and Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient.